<p>So I guess this is one of those rare threads on this board that relates to current MIT students. I'm a freshman in 18.02 right now and am debating whether or not I should take 18.03 next term. I don't need it for my major (I'm a course 7), but I do have one space next semester where I am not quite sure what class I would take. (I am also thinking of doing a course 15 minor, so maybe a management related class, an intro bio (I passed out but should I just jump ahead to genetics?), 18.03, or maybe a statistics class b/c that might be helpful for my major?) </p>
<p>Haha, I just responded to your post in the LJ community.</p>
<p>To elaborate -- I think it's a great idea to take 18.03, but I think 5.12 would be an even better idea, as it's a prereq for 7.05/5.07. It's okay to take 7.03 without having taken 7.01x at MIT.</p>
<p>Required courses and when you'd want to take them --
7.03: only offered in fall, take sophomore year
7.05/5.07: 7.05 in spring, 5.07 in fall, take sophomore year
7.06: prereq 7.03/7.05, take junior year
7.02: take sophomore year
project lab: take junior year
upper-division electives: take junior/senior year
5.60: take whenever you can fit it in</p>
<p>if you passed out of intro bio, then you probably don't need to take it again - take something you find interesting (or 18.03 if that interests you :-P)</p>
<p>Well, it's a common class to take second term of freshman year, since it's required for a slew of majors.</p>
<p>Haha, I don't even know how to answer questions like that. Pretty much everything at MIT is hard. There are far harder classes at MIT than 18.03, if that's what you mean, but the class isn't a walk in the park.</p>
<p>lets say i went to multivariable class 4 times this year, twice in the beginning, once for the first midterm, then once for the last midterm, turn my psets in to his mailbox, and spend on average 20hours/month... is this not going to work? what if im not ready for the transition into a nonslacker environment?</p>
<p>i really do try to go to class, but i always end up having to do work for another class (like writing papers) and just never end up going.. or sleeping since that seems more productive than going to class</p>
<p>Well, I think psets alone will probably take more than 5 hrs/week.</p>
<p>As for going to class... it really depends on your learning style. Some people can't miss a class without getting behind, while others can get by on the book and lecture notes (lucky ducks). If I had to hazard a guess though, I think maybe you will have to go to class a little more often.</p>
<p>How often are psets due? Right now its 1/week, generally 30min - an hour long... except yesterday it took me 2 hours :(.. but i blame the internet</p>
<p>It can vary a little from instructor to instructor, but the prof who's teaching it this spring is the same one who taught it the year they archived it for the</a> OCW site, so I think that should help you get an idea of what assignments are like.</p>
<p>On the OCW site, they show 8 psets total (over the 14-week MIT term), which is probably one per week, no psets in test weeks, and no psets the first or last weeks of the course. Psets are really designed to make you think, and they usually take several hours -- I'm currently taking a chemistry class that gives psets that I have to work on for about 10 hours a week.</p>
<p>I don't really recall how long it took my boyfriend to do his 18.03 psets when he took it with Miller. I guess mostly he and his friends would get together the evening before they were due and work on them for 6 or 7 hours.</p>
<p>So I've never taken 18.03, but the word from my boyfriend is that 18.03 is "ridonk hard". :)</p>
<p>I mean, 18.02 isn't really all that different from 18.01 -- a surface integral is still an integral, just evaluated in a slightly more complex manner. 18.03, on the other hand, is "a whole new way to look at math" (the boyfriend again).</p>
<p>But don't let me freak you out -- you know as well as I do that there's a wide variety of ability in every class, and some people just get math. If you're one of those, it will of course take you much less time to do psets! :) But mere mortals should expect to spend a significant amount of time on them.</p>
<p>You guys managed to have this conversation in a way that prevented anyone but an MIT student from understanding. Awesome (even though it was awfully simple).</p>
<p>I guess the question is to take Differential Equations or not?</p>
<p>I'm not sure exactly how hard any of the Calculus classes are at MIT, but while Multi isn't a much harder Subject than Single Variable (not much harder at all, really), differential is a much bigger step.</p>
<p>I am a mere mortal. I get math, but not in a deep down visceral way. I can understand the concepts well, and have managed to be able to visualize 18.02 for pretty much the entire time, but proofs and me do not get along, or "clever tricks" that haven't been explicitly shown.</p>
I'm not sure exactly how hard any of the Calculus classes are at MIT, but while Multi isn't a much harder Subject than Single Variable (not much harder at all, really), differential is a much bigger step.
<p>okay.... here's the thing... i kind of registered for MATH 206 which is equivalent 18.06. i actually originally wanted to take 18.06 but thats in the morning at 11 and there's no way i can get there at 11 since i have a bunch of morning classes... so i guess im taking MATH206, 18.03, 14.01, organic chem w/lab, bio111X (organismal bio) w/lab, and maybe ECON102 (macro)... is that a bad idea?</p>
<p>How many classes does a person usually take per term at Wellesley?</p>
<p>I mean, taking 14.01 and 18.03 together wouldn't be unusual for an MIT second-semester freshman. But 4 classes is the normal courseload at MIT, so each class fully expects to take up 1/4 of your school time each week. (I don't know if it's useful to point out that an MIT second-semester freshman wouldn't be allowed to take that schedule -- freshmen are restricted to 57 units in their second term, and the MIT equivalent of your schedule, 18.06, 18.03, 14.01, 5.12, 7.014, 14.02, is 72 units.)</p>
<p>Effectively, a 12-unit class at MIT (both 18.03 and 14.01 are 12 units) expects to take up 12 hours out of your week through a combination of class and homework. My friend Jay is in 14.01 right now and says the psets run about 4 hours, so 14.01 should take less than 12 hours per week. But 18.03 will probably take 12.</p>
<p>If it were me, I'd drop the organic lab -- that schedule without the organic lab looks difficult, but doable.</p>